Amazon and Tribeca Film Festival Team Up for Short Film Competition

Jane Rosenthal, Robert DeNiro, Craig Hatkoff and Peter Scarlet at last year's Tribeca Film Festival. Photo by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE.

Amazon is joining the film festival world with the launch of the Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition, in which Amazon customers will select one winner to receive $50,000 to go toward the recipient's next film, Tribeca founders Robert DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, announced last week.

Through April 13, 2005, Amazon.com will accept short-film submissions for entry into the competition. Filmmakers can submit films that are up to seven minutes in length, according to the rules and instructions found at www.amazon.com/shortfilms. Amazon.com customers can view the submitted films in the Tribeca Screening Room or on the Amazon website, where viewers can rate the films on a scale from one to five, using the existing Amazon.com star rating system. Additionally, five jurors from the Tribeca Film Festival will review selected film submissions alongside Amazon.com customers, providing feedback.

In addition to the top prize winner, five of the highest-rated films will be screened at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City and will run over a period of four weeks on the Amazon home page. The first-prize winning filmmaker will receive the $50,000 grant in the form of an American Express prepaid card. The winning filmmaker will be announced in early July.

"Amazon.com customers will decide the winner," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com in a statement. "Along with the Tribeca Film Festival and American Express, we're excited to showcase short films on the Amazon website."

The fourth annual Tribeca Film Festival will take place in Lower Manhattan April 19 - May 1.

Details of the line up and other events for this year's festival will be released beginning this week.